Hayter and Weibang roller systems

[Gregs mowing]

Hi guys. Seen lots of talk of people not so happy with Hayter's drive system. I know they have a few changes including seal plates, to stop the drive cams coming out, new roller frame to reduce the build up of mud behind the roller and reduce the strain on the gearbox. A* to Hayter for effort to try and make things better and more robust.
Ultimately there are still issues in my option. Roller shells are made out of too thin metal. The chain guard should be all metal and made out of harder wearing metal. Seen loads where a hole has appeared through the metal strip. There's still load of mud and mud balls that get stuck between the centre of the rollers. And final big issue is the dry bearing roller bearing / bushes. Which has a honeycomb style of manufacturer and result in the hole becoming elongated and need replacing, if they were solid it must be better. In fact the honeycomb construction is very similar to the starter housing mounting bolt holes on the Kawasaki fj engines.

Are and dealers on here hearing of significant upgrades coming from Hayter?

Secondly a fair few people have jumped to buying Weibang roller mowers. As they are abusing contractors and don't like being told they are abusive and have repair bills for Hayter machines being repaired. So they buy a Weibang thinking it's a tank. Which granted with a Kawasaki engine and its significant weight it does feel well built. But surely too long and too heavy for most contractors. Main question is. For those that have worked on a few Weibang drive and Hayter drive systems. Which is actually better?
I was tasked on working on a legacy 56 roller and after the flimsy side panels were removed. The pointless spring clips removed around the sprockets and then the pins knocked out allowing the chain and sprockets to come off. Two screws each side easily came off with a plate each side.
Then it went down hill!  A proper bearing each side of the roller frame. With no grease on was the enemy for the next hour or two. Completely corroded onto the roller shaft. Various methods of heat, pry bars and swear words were no match. Even when the outer ring of the housings were off and tried hitting the remainder on an anvil in true metal worker fashion they still wouldn't have come off. Not knowing how old this machine is however. Suggests these aren't the easiest to work on. I was told by a mechanic of 20+ years that he had one which was 3 months old and the bearings were seized on even then! And he refuses point blank to do drive work to a Weibang ever again! 
Were we just unlucky or is there fundamental design issues of a lack of workshop ability on the weibangs?  I know they have done few things to the drives over the years, most recent is a thicker roller shaft and thus everything else like shells are different to accommodate the thicker shaft as they were snapping. Like a cowboys leg.
The way the bearings are stuck even to the roller frame seems very odd to me and the fact so much effort is required with seemingly no sensible way of levering them off is daft. When stuck onto the shaft it reminds of of the old Hayter's from 2006-2018 with the crap roller bearings then which seized on but you could just about get crowbar under them or a puller but you had access to attack them.

So what's worse? Hayter which realistically commercially lasts a year at most. But easy and quick and relatively cheap to rebuild. Or a drive from Weibang which lasts longer but is a nightmare to work on with everything seized on, metal on metal. ?
Cheers.

[Mick]

Hi Greg.  I agree the roller shells are too thin, in fact I'm surprised they last as long as they do. I also still don't like the cheap cam and key idea, I'd much rather see a proper freewheel unit of some sort plugged into each end of the rollers. 

Chain cover is about as cheap as they can make it, I can't really see this changing too much. One of the biggest let downs for me is the gearboxes on the 48 Pros, they appear to be just a domestic gearbox same as the 41 but with a metal lower casing and minus all the variable speed parts. The internals are not beefed up to pro level as far as I'm aware.

Don't get me wrong, the machines as they are currently are very easy to use and work on, and if they can iron out gearbox and roller issues they would be great machines.

Weibang Legacy are bloody heavy for sure. The roller bearings as you said can get stuck on the shaft and can be a mare to get off. I have a nice set of bearing separators for this purpose, and haven't had one I couldn't get off one way or another. 

If I had to choose from a repair point of view I'd take the Hayter every day. Easier and lighter to work on.

[Gregs mowing]

Fair enough Mick. Thanks for the response. Thanks for the link to the bearing separator kit. I did buy one ages ago but haven't got it at the shop where all my tools are. Something to remember.

They've had the cut out in the frame on the hayyter pros for a little while now. As it's easier to get the roller assembly in with the new seal plates. Although I have fitted one or two with seal plates to not cut out frames. It is a bit harder admittedly so glad they put the slot in. Have you seen any cases where the frame has been damaged where the slot it and it's caught a hard surface? Looking at it in use it looks like the slot is facing straight down so I do worry if it gets caught. Thought the speed they go at it'll probably just glide over or bump across.
Recon the new seal plates are doing the job?

Do you know when the 60v pro 48+56's are out?
Will be good to see how these go. I intend on getting the 48! 

[Mick]

Not seen any issues with the slotted frame as yet, but it's not impossible that a new issue pops up as a result of some other fix down the line. Time will tell I guess. 

Those bearing separators are extremely useful, got me out of a muddle loads of times where a regular legged puller would either just jump off, or completely destroy the part being removed.  I've used them on Bearings of various types, Pullies, and some Sprockets, and blade bosses. Such a handy tool.

Release dates on the 60v pro 48+56's at the moment I have no clue, sorry. I'm sure it will be all over the web as soon a they get close to release though.